News & events

Thinking outside the box for engineering competition | 04/09/2013

Students from St Birinus School in Didcot have teamed up with CCFE on a technology project with a real-world application – and their work has been put forward for a national award.

The group of five Year 12 students designed a box for non-contact examination of beryllium tiles from the JET fusion device at Culham. The project was part of the Engineering Education Scheme, which links teams of students and their teachers with local companies to work on real, scientific, engineering and technological problems. Supervised by CCFE engineer Margaret Graham, the team worked for seven months on the design, with visits to JET to talk to the technicians, engineers and scientists who required the box. On completion, the team had to produce a written report, create a poster and give a presentation to a team of judges.

Having already won a runner-up prize in the South East England Science and Engineering Competition in July, the St Birinus project has been entered for the National Science and Engineering finals to be held in Birmingham in March 2014.

Margaret Graham was impressed with the quality of the students' work: “They worked very hard, with some useful feedback from CCFE staff and the judges, and their design was very successful – we wish them luck in the awards next year!” she said.